Legal Reference Library

The state consumer disputes redressal commission has held that a builder or property developer cannot unilaterally terminate a registered agreement between him and the buyer of a flat. Dismissing an appeal by a Pune-based builder, a two-member bench of the commission, headed by S A Kulkarni, also held on June 12 that lopsided agreements favouring the builder more and going against the provisions of the Maharashtra Flat Ownership Act cannot be legally sustained. The matter is related to a community housing scheme developed at Dhanori along the Vishrantwandi Road by Sankalpa Constructions, a partnership firm headed by Prabhakar Bhosale and Vandana Bhosale. The company entered into the position of service provider by undertaking construction activity of small tenements for distribution among members of a particular community. It signed agreements with individual members of the scheme and registered the same.  One of the members, Haribhau J Ghode of Bhairavinagar, who filed a com...

Showing concern over a very serious issue of infringement of right to privacy in cases where the lawyers produce very personal documents of the parties as an evidence before the Court, a division bench of S. Muralidhar and I.S. Mehta JJ., issued directions to the lower courts with respect to the steps which should be taken into care while producing documents before the court which is of a ‘sensitive nature’. In the instant case, the appellant is seeking the permanent custody of his minor children, and for that he produced the ‘personal diary’ maintained by one of his child before the Court to show that he desires to stay with his father even after his vacations are over. The Court stated that contents of the document reflect inter alia the very private and personal feelings and opinions of a young child about his parents, sibling, friends and relatives, and it is not something which should be casually placed in the public domain to violate the right of privacy of the author of the di...

The National Consumer Commission has dismissed the complaint of the Confederation of Exporters and Expo Mart Exhibitors alleging deficiency in service by India Exposition Mart Ltd which charged them external development charges over and above the price of space allotted to them. Exporters were allotted individual spaces in a complex in Greater Noida, in the National Capital Territory, to showpiece their wares. But they were aggrieved by the demand of extra payments and the extent of space allotted to them. The commission rejected their complaint holding that the exporters were not consumers according to the definition of the word in the Consumer Protection Act. According to the law, those who buy goods or avail of services for commercial purposes are not consumers. They cannot approach the consumer forums, but should seek other legal forums.

Dealing with the question of admissibility of confessional statements so as to establish criminal conspiracy vide Section 120B of the Penal Code, 1860, a bench comprising of  Dr. A.K. Sikri and UU Lalit observed that the High Court’s approach of relying upon the confessional statements, otherwise inadmissible, with the aid of 'other connected evidence' is contrary to law. The inadmissibility of confessional statements, as submitted by advocate Sushil Kumar on behalf of the Appellants,  stood accepted and established by the Court owing to the joint operation of Sections 25 and 26 of the  Evidence Act, 1872,whereby confession to a police officer and confession made by an accused in police custody do not stand proved as against him. The definition of the term 'confession' meanwhile, was restricted to “mean a direct acknowledgment of guilt and not the admission of an incriminating fact, howsoever grave or conclusive”. Extending its deliberation to Section 27 of the Eviden...

Supreme Court of United Kingdom- Deciding on the issue whether the court should order the return to France of two little girls who have been living with their mother in Scotland since July 2013, the Court unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the father and observed that, for the purposes of ‘habitual residence’, the stability of residence, rather than its degree of permanence, is important. The present appeal before the Court concerns the application of Article 3 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (‘the Convention’) which states that it is unlawful to remove or retain a child in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person under the law of the state in which the child was ‘habitually resident’ immediately before removal or retention. The Court, hence, delved into the discussion as to what elements constitute a ‘habitual residence’ and noted that for the purposes of applying the Hague Convention, ‘habitual residence’ is to be determi...

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC): While holding Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI), Chandigarh guilty of medical negligence, NCDRC upheld the order of Chandigarh State Commission and also enhanced the total compensation from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in case of death of a girl due to delay in treatment. The Commission was hearing an appeal filed by the parents of the deceased challenging the order of Chandigarh State Commission vide which the Institute was directed to pay Rs 7 lakh and Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) to pay Rs 3 lakh to them. The parents of the deceased approached NCDRC for enhancement of compensation awarded by the State Commission. PGI, Chandigarh had also filed appeal before Commission in the matter. The facts of the case are that a schoolgirl aged about 16 years, on her way from her school to residence was crushed by a CTU bus when she was attempting to board it in July 2012. She was admitted into Advance ...

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC): While declaring the repudiation of claim of a policyholder by the insurance company on the ground of non-disclosure of material facts as improper, NCDRC directed the insurance company to pay the insurance cover amount to the policyholder. A pilot of a private airline had approached NCDRC alleging that he was denied insurance claim on the ground that he did not disclose the fact that he was a known case of Hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Earlier, the complainant who was working for Jet Lite (India) Ltd. as pilot from 01.12.2007 had obtained a policy Ltd. of Rs.1.00 crore in April, 2009 from New India Assurance Co. and paid a sum of Rs.56, 200/- as premium. Later, in December, 2009, when the complainant was declared ‘permanently unfit’  for flying, he approached the insurance company for his policy claim but his claim was repudiated on the ground that he did not disclose the fact that he was a known case of Hypertensio...

Directors of companies and partners of firms have been fastened with stricter onus by the Supreme Court in cheque bouncing cases. It ruled last week that notice of dishonour of cheques to the company is sufficient, and there is no need to serve separate notices on the directors. The directors are supposed to know about the dishonour when the company gets the notice. There is sufficient time, nearly 75 days, to find which directors are responsible for the fault and therefore, there is no need to prolong the process by serving notices on each director or partner. The Supreme Court overruled the Bombay High Court which had maintained that separate notices were essential. Allowing the appeal case, Kirshna Texport & Capital Markets Ltd vs Ila Agrawal, the court asked the high court to reconsider its view regarding the trial of two directors. Analysing Sections 138 and 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the court said: "There is nothing in Section 138 which may even remotely sug...

Before launching an income tax search and seizure, it is not necessary for the authorities to allow the assessee to inspect documents to verify whether there is sufficient ground for the order, the Supreme Court stated while disapproving the contrary view taken by the Delhi High Court in the case, Director General vs Spacewood Furnishers Ltd. It is necessary to record the reasons for ordering the search because the court may have to verify whether it was legal and not arbitrary. But that principle "would not confer on the assessee a right of inspection of the documents or to a communication of the reasons at the stage of issuing the authorisation," the court underlined. It clarified that it was only at the stage of commencement of the assessment proceedings after completion of the search and seizure that the requisite information may be disclosed to the assessee. The high court view would make the exercise counter-productive. Moreover, the high court committed a "ser...

JHARKHAND HIGH COURT  (SHREE CHANDRASHEKHAR, J.)  PARITRAN TRUST, JHARKHAND  Petitioner  VERSUS  PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK, DELHI AND OTHERS Respondents  W.P. (C) No. 3710 of 2012-Decided on 14-10-2014. (A) Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, Sections 13 (2), 13 (3-A) – Declaring account as NPA - Recovery of debt – Composite notice - There is no prohibition in Section 13(2) of the Act against issuing a composite order both declaring the account of the borrower NPA and requiring the borrower to discharge its liability simultaneously. (Para 11)  (B) Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, Sections 13 (2), 13 (3-A) – Declaring account as NPA - Recovery of debt – Principles of natural justice - Nowhere in the representation dated 21-1-2012, the petitioner-Trust has disputed the calculation nor has it claimed its ...

Case Referred: 1. Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod vs. State of Maharashtra and Another, 2014 (9) Supreme Court Cases 129. Facility to en cash cheque at any bank branch - Held: Mere presentation of cheque in a CBS branch does not give rise a cause of action and confirm territorial jurisdiction to Court of that area - . On bare reading of provisions contained in Section 138 read with Section 142 of NI Act and the view taken by the Apex Court in Dashrath Rupsingh Rathod (supra), there is no scope of confusion that complaint under Section 138 of NI Act will be maintainable only at the place where the cheque stands dishonoured. In other words, the prosecution for the offence under Section 138 of NI Act would only lie at the place where the drawee bank is situated. 2015 STPL(Web) 482 DEL [2015 (1) DCR 169] DELHI HIGH COURT (MR. VED PRAKASH VAISH, J.) GOYAL MG GASES PVT. LTD. Petitioner VERSUS STATE & ORS. Respondent ...................... 7. Learned counsel for t...